PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Prosecutors claimed at the retrial that by holding up the diary in court during the first trial, they may have contaminated it, making the retesting invalid – but this was rejected on the advice of the forensic specialist. In May of this year, after the three-week retrial, the jury returned unanimous not-guilty verdicts on all counts. Brian, a construction manager, is now back home in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. He is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He and his family spent nearly £500,000 on clearing his name, mostly the proceeds of inheritance, and have been told they may not get any of it back. They were not eligible for Legal Aid, and since a change in the law in 2014, most people whose convictions are quashed get no compensation. Elaine told Inside Time: “I’m chuffed for Brian. When it comes to the money, I always said that I would be happy to sell my home to clear his name – but why the hell should I have to? If we hadn’t had all that money, Brian would still be in prison.” Brian said: “If the police had done a proper investigation and followed up all the lines of inquiry, this would never have gone to court.”
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STORY: "The cost of innocence: £500k," published by Inside Times reports on October 5, 2023.
GIST: "A man wrongly convicted of historic child sex offences spent more than five years in prison before eventually clearing his name – yet he and his family have been left almost half a million pounds out of pocket."
Brian Buckle, 51, was accused of abusing a girl in the 1990s when she was aged between eight and 10.
He insisted the allegations were false, but after a three-and-a-half-day trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2017, he was convicted on 16 counts and sentenced to a combined 33 years in prison, to be served over 15 years.
The key prosecution exhibit was the girl’s childhood diary.
She claimed that he had masturbated over it at the time of the abuse.
A DNA test showed it was stained with Buckle’s semen.
Prosecutors held it up in court to show the jury.
Buckle said he had never seen it before, and claimed the semen stain must have been planted on it to frame him – perhaps from a used condom.
For his appeal, he and his wife Elaine hired a new legal team led by barrister Stephen Vullo KC.
They found a forensic specialist in Florida who retested the diary and showed that the semen stain contained traces of lubricant used in condoms – indicating that it was Buckle, not his accuser, who was telling the truth.
Last year the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) sought a retrial, which heard evidence from a hypnotherapist who had seen the complainant before she came forward with her allegations.
Following the hypnotherapist’s testimony, the complainant admitted in court that she had been abused two years before she ever met Buckle.
Prosecutors claimed at the retrial that by holding up the diary in court during the first trial, they may have contaminated it, making the retesting invalid – but this was rejected on the advice of the forensic specialist.
In May of this year, after the three-week retrial, the jury returned unanimous not-guilty verdicts on all counts.
Brian, a construction manager, is now back home in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. He is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He and his family spent nearly £500,000 on clearing his name, mostly the proceeds of inheritance, and have been told they may not get any of it back.
They were not eligible for Legal Aid, and since a change in the law in 2014, most people whose convictions are quashed get no compensation.
Elaine told Inside Time: “I’m chuffed for Brian. When it comes to the money, I always said that I would be happy to sell my home to clear his name – but why the hell should I have to? If we hadn’t had all that money, Brian would still be in prison.”
Brian said: “If the police had done a proper investigation and followed up all the lines of inquiry, this would never have gone to court.”
Dyfed-Powys Police declined to comment. A CPS spokesperson said: “Following an investigation by Dyfed-Powys Police, we charged Brian Buckle in 2016 with multiple sexual offences after our legal test was met. The Court of Appeal subsequently set aside his conviction in 2022 and referred the case back to the CPS.
Following a review of the evidence, we concluded our legal test was still met and proceeded with a second trial. The jury found Mr Buckle not guilty and we respect its decision.”
The case, which raises questions over the police policy of “believing victims” and the potential it brings for miscarriages of justice, will feature in a BBC News documentary scheduled to be broadcast this week.'
the entire story can be read at:
https://insidetime.org/the-cost-of-innocence-500k/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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